1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to media viewing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional audio-visual systems for playing media to be viewed on a television or monitor are able to provide some interactive features, depending on the software associated with the media. Here, “interactive” is taken to mean that the user, or viewer, takes part in the media replay process at some level beyond the simple selection of a media service (e.g. a broadcast television channel) to view. So, rather than the media replay process just being a linear replay of the whole of the selected media service, the order and/or nature of the replayed media depends on input from the viewer himself.
For example, DVDs provide some interactive menus and additional content accessible during normal play of the disk, and Blu-Ray® disks provide similar features. Meanwhile some terrestrial or satellite television receivers such as Sky® set-top boxes have interactive features associated with transmitted programmes and adverts.
Whilst these systems are limited to interaction via just the television screen itself, other systems are able to provide some additional interaction. For example, the Sony® PlayStation 3® (PS3®) and the Sony PlayStation Portable® (PSP®) machines are able to interoperate wirelessly so that a user of the PSP can view content (such as a video) via either the television or via the PSP, and control and interact with the video on the PSP via a so-called ‘remote play’ function.
However, there is scope to provide further modes of interactivity between a television, a media player connected to that television, and a portable entertainment device.
It is an object of the present invention to mitigate or alleviate the above problems.